The J. Edgar Hoover Building is a 12 story reinforced concrete framed structure completed in 1971 that occupies one city block. In 2006, a piece of the façade concrete fell onto the Pennsylvania Avenue sidewalk. McMullan & Associates conducted an emergency inspection of complete exterior building elevations, with close-up access provided by swing-stage scaffolding. The emergency inspections also included non-destructive testing in the form of a complete concrete delamination survey to quantify the extent of existing façade deterioration requiring repair, and directing removal by the façade restorations swing-stage support contractor of severely loose concrete in imminent danger of falling.

McMullan & Associates also performed laboratory testing and evaluation of the existing concrete façade to determine the cause of the problems and to develop alternative solutions for GSA’s evaluation and selection. Because of the immediate danger to FBI personnel and the general public using the pedestrian plazas surrounding the building, McMullan & Associates provided design and construction phase services for erection of temporary pedestrian overhead protection structures at building perimeter critical pedestrian entrances.

Life safety issues were also discovered within the underground parking garage, where sections of the garage structure were severely deteriorated and loose pieces of concrete were in imminent danger of releasing from the garage slab undersides. McMullan & Associates provided a concurrent condition assessment evaluation of the severe concrete deterioration in the garage, including directing ‘loose concrete removals’ from underside of loading dock slab sections.

McMullan & Associates then joined with a GSA Term Contractor on a Design-Build team to provide construction repair documents, shop drawing review and construction phase services for emergency garage repairs and emergency temporary exterior façade remediations in the form of debris containment netting, and construction of temporary overhead protection structures under an accelerated procurement process.